Alexandria Minnesota is one of the most popular resort areas in the Upper Midwest.  The area is surrounded by lakes, rivers and streams.  It is one of the most popular searches on LakePlace.com and we have been able to help a lot of people locate the Alexandria lake property of their dreams.  Whether you are searching for a lake home, cabin, or lake lot - be sure to start your Wisconsin & Minnesota lake property search at LakePlace.com!  Happy Lake Home Hunting!

P.S. LakePlace.com also features plenty of Alexadria MN cabin rentals and Alexandria resorts!

P.S.S. Checkout our featured listing in the Alexandria area - it has so many features that it deserved its own website - Northern MN Lake Home (dot com)!

The 19th Carnival of Real Estate is up and running here. Although our submission was not a “chosen one” this week (bummer) - the great people at the zillow blog (the blog team at Zillow started the carnival, covers hosting costs, and has bascially ensured its success) decided to link to all submissions here. There are some really good real estate posts this week - be sure to check them out!

Before I leave for the weekend…I wanted to drop a you a note about Cabin Life Magazine. If you are not a subscriber - I highly, highly recommend that you subscribe today! This is a great magazine for lake home owners, lake home buyers, and lake home dreamers! If you like LakePlace.com - you are going to love Cabin Life! You can get a feel for the magazine (minus the beautiful images) by reading the Cabin Life articles on LakePlace.com. Again, I highly recommend this magazine - it is our favorite!

I was going through LakePlace.com today and I thought I would share some of my favorite pictures.  This first picture is an “Up North” cabin on Lake Vermilion.  It is located on Pine Island  (Tower side) and listed at $2,200,000. LakePlace.com has a lot of Lake Vermilion propery listings. If you are searching by “water” - be sure to also search for  Lake Vermillion property - it looks like many agents do not know how to spell Vermilion (one “L” is correct).

I had to include this Lake Vermilion Home too…check out the interior photos…it will take you back in time. Listed at $999,900. (Lake Vermilion is located in Northeast Minnesota)

This Hurley Wisconsin lake home looks like paradise…It is listed at $418,000 and is located on Rest Lake (part of the Manitowish Chain of 10 lakes) in Northeast Wisconsin. One of the nicest beaches I have seen.

That is all I have time for today…if you would like to find other great images of Northern Minnesota lake property or Northern Wisconsin lake property - just log on to LakePlace.com!

Today I am going to put Hayward Wisconsin in the spotlight. LakePlace.com currently lists about 525 Hayward lakeshore property listings. I was looking through the Pine Needle Lawn and I noticed that I have not mentioned the Hayward, WI area in the past…I am not sure how that happened - but I thought I would go ahead and fix that problem!

We have a great article on Hayward lake property - cabins and lake homes on LakePlace.com - If you are interested in this area, I suggest you take a look.  It includes the history of the area, links to several websites, and a lot more. I think you will like it.

The Hayward Lakes area is extremely popular…it is our #2 most clicked on area. The most popular lakes in the area include Round lake, Grindstone lake and Lac Courte Oreilles. If you have any questions about Hayward, please give us a call or shoot us an email - we will do our best to help you find your dream lake place!

Well,

Nardi Gras (National Association of Realtors 2006 Conference) has ended. I hear it was a lot of fun. LakePlace.com was honored to send our Broker and Chief Operating Officer, Wade Hanson, to the convention as a speaker (LakePlace.com has only been a real estate brokerage for 9 months). Wade was asked to give his “under 30″ perspective on the real estate industry. He was also in Chicago a couple of weeks ago recording a CD for the NAR on the same topic. If you are a realtor, you should receive it with the next edition (I think) of REALTOR magazine.

Back to the conference - I received reports that many of the leaders (the “big guys”) in the industry are still fighting, rather than embracing, the power of the Internet. It is as if they are blind to what is, and has been happening - using phrases like “flash in the pan” and “here today, gone tomorrow.”

Now I don’t know about you…but I do not think the Internet is going anywhere. My youngest daughter has had her own laptop since she was two years old (I had a computer business). She is now 7…and she can navigate through the web like it’s no ones business. My two teenage daughters can send text messages with their cell phones at a pace that would put a court reporter to shame. And the leaders in this industry are using terms like “here today, gone tomorrow” when discussing real estate & the Internet/technology? It blows my mind.

LakePlace.com is a perfect example of how powerful the Internet really is. A few years ago, LakePlace.com did not exist. Today it is visited by tens of thousands of people every week and is the default starting point for buyers and sellers of Wisconsin and Minnesota lake property. If you are looking for a vacation property in Minnesota & Wisconsin - you most likely use LakePlace.com.

Because of the Internet, LakePlace.com is able to compete with and exceed the services of ALL of the big guys…and we are able to do it with a much lower overhead. For buyers, we are able to present more waterfront properties for sale than any other company in the Midwest (we are members of 19 multiple listing services)…and for sellers, we are able to put your property in front of more serious waterfront buyers than any other company in the Midwest.

I am not saying that we do not have our growing pains…they are to be expected and we are quick to apologize for them…but if the “big guys” really believe that companies like LakePlace.com (and many others) are going anywhere, they are going to be in for a hard landing.

Today some news came out that a vacation rental website (homeaway.com) just received a whopping $150,000,000 in venture capital…and that is on top of the $50,000,000 they raised about 4 months ago, bringing the total to $200,000,000! Wow – that is a lot of money! With all that cash, they acquired the popular VRBO.com – which is (was) the largest vacation rental site on the web…wait…the largest vacation rental site with the exception of Minnesota vacation rentals & Wisconsin vacation rentals – LakePlace.com still holds that honor (even when the “big guys” combine).

So why is LakePlace.com so popular in this part of the country? It’s simple really. We focus 100% of our efforts on promoting the Northland. When a vacation rental owner lists his/her property on LakePlace.com, they know that every single visitor to our site is looking at Minnesota and/or Wisconsin only. Our visitors are not searching for rentals in Hawaii, Mexico, or Florida. As a matter of fact, we probably get 10x more traffic for Minnesota and Wisconsin vacation rentals than the big guys get…

We have and always will put our customers success ahead of our own. We have and always will recommend that all of our vacation rental owners (at least those who we have not flooded to a 100%+ booked rate) list their rentals on multiple websites. The cost is usually around $100/yr, and if you pick the right sites, they are worth every penny. We might be a little biased, but we have your best interests at heart.

We look forward to helping you fill your rentals for many years to come and we congratulate and wish HomeAway the best! Boy that’s a lot of mullah!

Tags: homeaway, vacation rentals, Home Away, VRBO, venture capital

Hi everyone,

Just a friendly reminder to do your civic duty today. The little “I VOTED” sticker will make you feel good about yourself!

There is a new leader in the Lake Minnetonka real estate market. This Lake Minnetonka home is priced at $16,900,000, making it the most expensive property in Minnesota. If you remember, a month or so ago, another Lake Minnetonka home was reduced from $18,900,000 to $14,900,000…it is currently the #2.

This new property was recently listed by Sky Sotheby’s Realty which recently moved into the Minnesota market. If you have not heard of Sotheby’s Realty - you are not alone. I have been following them for a few years now - They are associated with Sotheby’s Auction House, but only by name. Sotheby’s Auction house sold the rights to use the name to NRT (formerly Cendant), now Realogy. This is the same company that owns Century 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA, and others.Â

Castle Rock Lake - Wisconsin’s 4th largest lake - is today’s needle in a haystack.  With just one click, you can view just about every Castle Rock Lake Property on the market using LakePlace.com. Currently prices range from $750k for a beautiful lake home, down to $54k for a wonderful, pine studded access lot.  Castle Rock Lake is one of Wisconsin’s most popular lakes.Â

You may also be interested in Lake Petenwell properties for sale - At 23,000 acres, Lake Pentenwell is Wisconsin’s 2nd largest lake and it is just a few miles from Castle Rock. Prices on Lake Pentenwell are very similar to Castle Rock Lake. Happy Lake Home Hunting!